Sukhsohit Singh became first thalassaemic to clear civil services in 2010.

Sukhsohit, who cleared the All India Civil Services exam in 2008, was considered medically unfit, on the basis of New Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital’s report which declared him a thalassemia patient. After receiving the letter of denial from the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) for the post, he had appealed to the department for the reconsideration of his medical examination. His application was considered and he has now been given another opportunity for getting his medical examination at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi, which began on June 10. While the first round of his medical examination is already over, another round of clinical investigations will be held on June 17.

“I don’t understand as to why I’m being denied a job, when I am mentally and intellectually fit for any form of civil services,” says Sukhsohit. He was diagnosed with thalassemia in 1985.Dr RK Marwaha, Sukhsohit’s physician at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, (PGIMER) who had issued a certificate of medical fitness to Sukhsohit, told Newsline that a thalassemia patient needs to undergo regular blood transfusion and “iron chelation” for controlling the signs of anaemia and removal of unwanted iron in different parts of the body,. Both the treatments are mandatory in the initial two years of a patient’s life and once they are done properly the body parts of the patient start functioning normally, Dr Marwaha added.